Instead of a glamour matchup of “America’s team” and Aaron Rodgers, Jets-Cowboys turned into a mismatch that could not quite measure up to last year in the ratings.
Sunday’s NFL national window, featuring Jets-Cowboys in 90% of markets, averaged a 12.8 rating and 25.78 million viewers on CBS — down 9% in ratings and 6% in viewership from coverage featuring Cowboys-Bengals last year (14.1, 27.39M), but the largest television audience since the Super Bowl in February.
Viewership trailed only last year as the highest for CBS in week two of the season since it resumed airing NFL coverage in 1998. (Keep in mind that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen viewership estimates prior to 2020.)
No other Week 2 window cracked even the 20 million mark. NBC’s Dolphins-Patriots Sunday Night Football game ranked second for the week with a 9.6 and 17.86 million viewers, down 9% in both measures from Bears-Packers last year (10.6, 19.55M).
Miami’s win was the least-watched Week 2 edition of SNF since 2020 (Patriots-Seahawks: 17.69M) and the lowest rated since 2005 — the last year SNF aired on ESPN (Chiefs-Raiders: 6.9).
Shifting to the early windows, FOX averaged an 8.1 and 16.59 million for singleheader coverage featuring Packers-Falcons in a plurality of markets — down 6% in ratings but up 2% in viewership from last year (ft. Buccaneers-Saints: 8.6, 16.23M).
CBS drew an 8.6 and 16.51 million for the first half of its doubleheader (mostly Chiefs-Jaguars), up 16% and 17% respectively from last year (mostly Patriots-Steelers: 7.4, 14.08M).
Rounding out the Week 2 slate, Browns-Steelers drew an 8.4 and 15.43 million on ABC and Saints-Panthers a 3.8 and 6.95 million on ESPN and ESPN2 in an overlapping Monday Night Football doubleheader. Compared to the same doubleheader in Week 2 last year, Browns-Steelers increased 20% (vs. Vikings-Eagles: 7.0, 12.86M), while Saints-Panthers declined 10% and 12% respectively (vs. Titans-Bills: 4.25, 7.92M).
During the two-hour period in which the games overlapped, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 combined to average 21.76 million viewers — up 6% from the comparable stretch last year.
As previously noted, Amazon opened its Thursday Night Football schedule with its largest audience yet, as more than 15 million viewers tuned in for Vikings-Eagles.
The full list of NFL ratings this season is available here.
For additional sports ratings, see the weekly chart.
